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The short answer is, use DVDShrink . DVDShrink is an older program that has yet to be equalled in ease of use for both stright-dvd backup and transcoding a dual layer DVD to fit on a single layer dvd. Just use DVDShrink to open/rip your DVD to your hard drive, then burn it with your favorite burning program. You can easiliy select a full backup to DVD9 format, or you can just select the main movie stream and reauthor the DVD to only include the main movie and whichever audio tracks you want. The transcoding in DVDShrink is not the best in the world, but if you don't compress your movies by more than 70% you will probably never notice. If you have Nero or DVDDecrypter installed, DVDShrink can use those programs to automatically burn the finished rip to a DVD.

HINT: If you are ripping to dual layer (DVD9) format and plan to burn your RIP to a dual layer DVD, then make sure to uncheck the "remove layer split" option in the DVDShrink program options, otherwise you'll end up with a RIP that can't be properly burned to a dual layer DVD. 

DVDShrink is no longer available from the original DVDShrink site, but you can still find it easily on sites such as Afterdawn.com along with more detailed ripping guides.